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Welcome to Friday Fictioneers! We are a community of writers from around the world who post 100-word stories every week, based on a photo prompt from Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ blog.

This week’s photo was taken by fellow writer C.E. Ayr. Thank you, C.E.!

Trompe L’Oeil

by Jan Brown

I’d been lost for days in a dense forest. I finally emerged into sunlight, illuminating a snowy white shoreline. Whales frolicked in the crystal waters. It was idyllic! I was filled with a sense of joy and peace.

Then someone called my name….

I awoke in a hospital bed, a nurse checking my vital signs.

“Did someone find me on the beach?”

“Beach? No. You’ve been in a coma for days, ever since your car accident.”

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It’s the last day of NaPoWriMo, and we are challenged to examine the way that we begin and end our poems. One way we can do this is to take a poem we have previously written, turn it upside down (with the last line becoming the first), and edit it so that it makes sense.

I chose to do this with the poem I wrote for Day 1 of NaPoWriMo. The original poem started in a place of darkness and proceeded to a hoped-for state of light. Of course, reversing the order gave a different feel. With only a few words changed, the poem now ends by advising the reader not to be afraid of the dark (i.e., pain and suffering). I hope I can follow that advice myself!

I think the poem still retains the essence of hope and healing. If I have learned anything, it is that without hope, we cannot move forward.

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The NaPoWriMo prompt for Day 27 is to write a hay(na)ku. This is like a haiku, but focuses on the number of words and relaxes the usual “rules” of haiku. The form was invented by an American teacher, to be more accessible for her students and easier to write. It’s a stanza consisting of three lines, with one word in the first line, two in the second and three in the third. You can write a hay(na)ku “sonnet” by stringing four stanzas together, and ending with a couplet of three words per line.

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Last week, when I was doing taxes and writing haiku, I missed a fun challenge to write a “found poem” using snippets of text from social media. So I searched Twitter for the word, “healing,” which is my theme for the month. I’ve selected some interesting excerpts and paired them together….Enjoy!

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The NaPoWriMo challenge for April 14th was to write a riddle poem. I’m not sure this is much of a riddle, especially since the answer is in the last stanza—I hope that’s not against the “rules.” Whether or not this addresses the NaPoWriMo challenge, it is something I needed to say. So that, as they say, is that!